Phonetic and phonological description of Even dialects (with a focus on acoustic vowel properties and vowel harmony)

The project is dedicated to the phonetics and phonology of Even, a Tungusic language spoken in eastern Siberia. In her dissertation, Natalia Aralova presents field data from two distant dialects, respectively pertaining to the village of Sebian-Küöl in Yakutia (Western dialect) and the district of Bystraia on the Kamchatka Peninsula (Eastern dialect). The main goals of her research are to investigate vowel oppositions, to clarify the distinction between the two vowel sets that are supposedly involved in vowel harmony, and to review the claims made for Even phonology in previous studies (e.g., that vowels are opposed by advanced vs. retracted tongue root (ATR vs. RTR)). To present the full picture of the sound system, the acoustic investigation of both vowels as well as liquid and stop consonants, which are also influenced by vowel harmony, is supplemented by perceptual data. [Natalia Aralova; advisors: Sven Grawunder (MPI-EvA), Brigitte Pakendorf (DDL, CNRS & Université Lyon 2), Silke Hamann & Paul Boersma (ACLC, University of Amsterdam)]